Chief cricket writer for The Age

Pat Cummins during his debut Test series in South Africa last year. Photo: Reuters

PAT Cummins and Shaun Marsh, only a few months ago regarded as the new spine of the Australian team, have had lines drawn through their names for the Test tour of the West Indies, well ahead of the squad's selection.

In a meeting with national selector John Inverarity, Marsh was told he needed to use the winter, and perhaps a county stint in England, to rebuild his batting and his confidence after a traumatic Test series against India, and will not be considered in the immediate future, while Cummins last week had a setback in his recovery from a bone-stress injury in his foot.

Neither will be seen again at Test level until next summer at the earliest, although Cummins hopes to be available for the winter one-day internationals in England.

The young, fast bowler has not been sighted in international cricket since his man-of-the-match performance on Test debut in Johannesburg in November, and felt soreness in his heel after bowling in the nets in Sydney last week. The selectors had hoped to include him in the limited-overs squads for the Caribbean as part of his development but now he cannot be considered for the Tests, either.

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''No, he won't. For a fast bowler to be fit for a Test match there are workload issues, you need a prolonged build-up in workload and he's not going to make it,'' Inverarity said. ''It [his foot] is just taking some time to heal. He bowled at half pace and things were going well, but when he bowled towards the end of last week, after that it became sore again.

''There's not [a time-frame for Cummins' comeback]. As you saw in his Test debut he was outstanding, and he's 18 years of age and we look forward to him coming back as soon as possible. Whether it's the ODIs in England, we're hopeful of that, but we're certainly not going to rush him … we want him to be 100 per cent fit before we contemplate [picking him] and that's why we're not taking him to the West Indies.''

Marsh's conversation with Inverarity indicates just how far he has fallen, and how much ground he needs to make up before he is considered in any format. Since scoring 17 runs in six innings against India, he has managed one half-century in five hits for Western Australia.

Marsh, along with other axed batsmen Phillip Hughes and Usman Khawaja, may struggle to retain his Cricket Australia contract when the number of retainers is slashed as part of the new performance-based system, for which negotiations have begun with the Australian Cricketers' Association.

''Shaun had rather a traumatic time [against India] and I was speaking to Shaun the other day. He needs to rebuild himself and it's not going to happen overnight,'' Inverarity said. ''I mean he had a really deep trough there. He needs to go back to state cricket and then during the winter months maybe the prospect of playing something in England, but it's not an overnight rebuild with Shaun.''